Thursday 24 November 2011

CPD23 Thing 21: promoting yourself in job applications

I found Maria Giovanna De Simone's Thing 21 post really useful and have taken several things away from it. I tailor each CV to the job I'm applying for, finding evidence for the requirements they advertise. I do each one from scratch, however. This means I often lose sight of my bigger skills set. I am now going to do what Maria suggests and indentify all my strengths, interests and skills, matching them up with my training and achievements in a separate document. I can then draw from this when fulfilling a job/person specification.

I'm also taking on board Maria's advice about how to demostrate your compatabiluty with the job description and person specification within my CV: "The requirements listed under job description must be address in the work experience section ... The person specification requiements must be addressed in the space reserved for additional information [either in] ... the paragraph that more or less says "tell us why you are applying, plus something you haven't told us elsewhere" [or] ... in the cover letter."  Whilst I do have separate sections for work experience and personal profile I often mix and match job and person requirements within them making them difficult for an employer to easily identify.

Finally, I found the CAR acronym a really good idea for answering interview questions - Context, Action, Results - and will be looking at her suggested Further Reading (Jobseeker tips; Open cover letters; and What's the key to a good interview) for tips.

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